Heretofore image disparity between related images has been detected by comparing pixel pairs in image correspondence. Correlation or "tiling" techniques involving distance functions and matching tiles of perhaps 16.times.16 pixels (or other sub-array configurations) in each pixel record were employed to establish the pixel pairs. Typically the mean value of the greyscale variation across a reference tile in one pixel record was correlated with the mean value of the greyscale variation of a string of candidate tiles in the other pixel record. Each of the 16 pixels in the best matching candidate tile were considered to be in image correspondence with the corresponding 16 pixels in the reference tile. The image disparity between corresponding pixels is caused by XY address displacement in position between the pixel pairs. In stereoscopic view applications, the greyscale disparity between corresponding pixel pairs in the left/right related images (the signal) reveals depth information about each pixel pair. However, the imaging procedure of exposing the image to photo sensors recording the image onto the sensors and processing the recorded image, present inherent image-wide distortions introducing background noise which dilutes the depth signal. These prior disparity detection systems did not compensate for these distortions to increase the signal-to-noise ratio.